by Patrick L. Cahalan

Menu

infrared

I visited here on a moody, grey-sky day, as you can see from the shot above. This spot deserves a lot more acclaim and recognition than it gets, at least in the USA (same goes for Turkey as a whole, and Istanbul in particular). It is a gorgeous work of architecture, both from the outside and within.

Blue Mosque II

It’s set at one end of a park, with the Hagia Sophia (built by the Roman Emperor Justinian) at the other end. The name Blue Mosque isn’t actually the official name – that’s the Sultahnamet mosque – it comes instead from the color of the tiles on the interior ceiling. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Blue Mosque III

Here’s the up-close view of the entrance leading to the park. In this instance the grey sky bothered me, so I fixed in photoshop to the sky I thought this photograph deserved.

Blue Mosque IV

See what I meant about blue tiles? Those come from the area of Iznik, in another part of Turkey. This is the underside of the central dome, with four mammoth pillars holding it up (called “Elephant Feet” colloquially).

Blue Mosque V

I got this shot from a nearby alcove where someone had left prayer beads on the rug. I like the simplicity here.

By the way, no shoes allowed inside (they give you a baggie for them, and have shelves to put them on). But the rug is wonderfully luxurious on your feet, which is especially a wonder given it’s trod upon by thousands of people every day.

Blue Mosque VI

This is the central worship area, off limits to bumbling tourists. At It functions not too differently from a church, except that folks sit on the carpet instead of in uncomfortable pews (the latter, I think was invented as a device of torment in the dark ages – at least carpet is cushioned!).

Blue Mosque VII

And finally, here’s one of the Elephant Feet in context, with some people for scale. The pillars are huge, seriously.

Welcome to the heart of Ancient Rome, the Forum. Couple thousand years back, you’d have seen a bunch of dudes in togas milling about, buying and selling, arguing about politics and religion, and so on.

Yeah, so not much changes, except thankfully for better hygiene. Not sure whether I’m glad or not that Emperor Vespasian introducing pay-only public toilets (still referred to locally as Vespasiana).

Roman Forum II

Here’s a view in infrared from the entrance from nearer the south end, looking northward. The remains of the Temple of Vesta are on the left, and the Temple of Caesar on the right.

Roman Forum III

And here’s another of the Temple of Caesar, from the front.

Roman Forum IV

This is actually outside the forum. Looking toward the middle, you’ll see a smaller arch (the Arch of Titus, wherein is depicted the sack of Jerusalem in the 1st century). That’s the southern end of the forum. The larger arch in the foreground is the more famous Arch of Constantine, and the photos taken from the 3rd level of the colosseum.

Roman Forum V

And some ground level color, from within the forum proper.

Roman Forum VI

And finally, this is from the top of Palatine Hill (behind the Temple of Vesta), where the likes of Augustus lived. Not a bad view from pup here, huh?

Side note, I was expecting much gnarlier hills in Rome. Guess that’s what seeing San Francisco as a child gets me. Palatine’s nothing next to Taylor Street!

I recently had the chance / was privileged enough to spend a few days in Istanbul last month, and it was incredible! We ended up there sort of by accident, after finding cheap airline tickets to Rome and Athens that went via Istanbul. And at that point, so the thinking went, why not stay a few days? After all, it’s not like we’re in that part of the world on the regular, 13 hour flight and whatnot.

My only regret is that we didn’t stay longer! It is truly an amazing city, in so many ways. From millennia of history and culture to a vibrant society to such warm, welcoming people you’d be hard-pressed to find a more remarkable spot.

I’ll start with 2 of the biggest sights that the city has – the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. These are practically on top of each other in the Sultahnamet area, only separated by a small park; maybe 100 yards, tops.

The mosque is gorgeous, inside and out, and given that I’ve never been in a mosque previously, I think I started in the right place. Note that the name comes from the blue tiles inside, see 2nd photo in the ceiling.

The Blue MosqueThe Blue Mosque, Interior

The Hagia Sophia, on the other hand, is a Roman cathedral, which was converted into a mosque, and then converted yet again into a museum. It’s got a mix of Christian and Muslim iconography throughout, and is truly stunning.

Here is the centerpiece (altar area, plus a nihrab pointing toward Mecca). The only place on earth you’ll find Jesus, Mary, and Gabriel depicted, plus the names of Allah and Mohammed. Fun fact: the original basilica pointed to Jerusalem, and the Muslim version to Mecca that’s off-center is only different by 3 degrees.

Hagia Sophia Altar Area

And here, a recovered mosaic of Jesus. This is a little unnerving in person – the eyes will follow you as you move around in front of the mosaic.

Byzantine Mosaic of Christ

Lots more to come from Istanbul’s photo trip!

BTW, I have decided the Turks are dessert hobbits – there always seem to be 2 desserts with any meal, and probably chocolate besides. It’s a miracle they aren’t all diabetic … maybe the ever-present and delicious Turkish coffee is what offsets that?

As I mentioned last time around, I recently had the chance to spend a day wandering the cemeteries just south of San Francisco. This particular shot is from the Golden Gate National Cemetery, which if it isn’t obvious, is a military cemetery. I’d also point out, this is not the same as the San Francisco National Cemetery, located in the Presidio (which is also 100% worth a visit, though it is much smaller). Among others, the GGNC is the final resting place of Adm. Chester Nimitz.

Betrayal

This impressive frieze is at the tomb of a San Francisco Catholic priest. I loved how the sculptor got so much detail to come out of the marble; in particular, you get a great view of Judas with a knife hidden out of everyone’s sight. Even if the main credit for this goes to Da Vinci, whoever executed the sculpture did a brilliant job.

DiMaggio Closeup

And this is a closer view of some of the offerings left at Joe DiMaggio’s grave. I liked the arrangement.

Marble Fountain

This fountain is actually a giant rolling ball (marble, I’m assuming) atop a water spout shaped like a lotus. As you might guess, this part of the cemetery in question is heavily Asian, both in design and residents. It’s an impressive sight to see this massive piece of stone rolling along like it’s the easiest thing in the world; certainly, a testament to the power of water.

Stained Glass Lamp

And in a place where every image is seemingly of religion, this was a nice counterpoint (not to mention beautiful). It is an absolutely lovely piece of stained glass.

No post for a few weeks – I’ll be out shooting. But rest assured there will be TONS of material when I get back!

My lesson to myself for the day is: be observant. Namely, don’t just look, really see.

This is one case where it worked out well for me. As I was driving through the cemetery looking for photo subjects, I spotted some stuff left near a large marker.

If I hadn’t been paying attention, or had been going too fast, I’d have missed it completely. But because I was being mindful of the opportunities around me, I got this great shot of the final resting place of the late Joe DiMaggio.

For you non-baseball fans out there, you’d probably best know him as Marilyn Monroe’s ex-husband, but he was a great deal more than that. Given he’s been gone so many decades and people are still leaving tributes, that ought to tell you something.

This is actually the Pulgas Water Temple, near Crystal Springs reservoir in California. Built at the final terminus of the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct, it is where the waters of the Tuolumne River finally settle before heading north to their destination in San Francisco.

Water Temple, Side IR View

I’d only recently heard of it, and it’s a nuisance to get to as it’s only open on weekdays. But bizarrely enough, that includes Labor Day, so I got lucky on this one.

Fortunately for me, it was still and sunny, and not too busy, so it made for great photos that required almost zero post-processing.

IR, Center View

It’s one of those old (looking) structures that looks great both in color and infrared. And if I’m this happy with Pulgas, I’m positively salivating about what I’ll see soon when I’m in Greece.

came across this fascinating scene a few weeks ago while on a camping trip. You can choose as you like whether this was the work of industrious and bored children, hippies and new agers, or the little folk.

Entryway

Either way, someone spent a good bit of time selecting rocks out from the nearby river, hauling them over a small berm, and setting them all in place.

Angle View

It makes me wonder – once it was set up, what did they do with it? It’s not for a campfire, that’s for sure. Nor is there evidence of substances being smoked, or blood sacrifices, etc. etc.

Fairy Ring in IR

Regardless, I loved the angles and lines and different compositions I was able to get from this scene. I had a fair amount of time around it (always a bonus) and was able to play around a bit. And I a